We are all given moments... it's what we do with them that will determine our legacy.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bonnet Tutorial

We're in the middle of the Prairie Primer for school this year. If you've never heard of it, it's a unit study-type curriculum based on all of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Well, my girls have been aching for their own bonnets. My search for some sort of free pattern online was mostly fruitless, and so I got the crazy idea that if I figured out how to make them on my own I could do a tutorial. So, you're all my guinea pigs. Let me know if I missed anything, if anything's unclear, or just what you think...

Step One:Cut out one crown piece (7"x14" rounded, with long side on the fold), two brim pieces (3.5"x9" rounded, with short side on fold), and two brim pieces of interfacing cut the same as the brim pieces (med weight works fine). Note: The photo of interfacing shows them unfolded.

Step Two:Iron your interfacing to your brim pieces

Step Three:Stich brim, right sides together, leaving long straight edge open. Clip the corners, then turn brim right side out and iron 1/4" to 1/2" hem to the inside of the long open edge. This will to be to sandwich the gathered crown edge in before topstitching later. Note: It's a bit stiff at this point so you may have to pin the ironed hem while it cools to hold it in place.

Step Four:Unfold crown and stich hem on the bottom (neck hem). If you want to put a neck piece on to shade the neck, do that instead.

Step Five:Baste the unhemmed edges of crown. Your basting should go from one end of the neck hem up and around the curve and back down to the other end of the neck hem. Pull basting so that the circumference of the crown equals the length of the brim. The photo shows how to check that measurement with both items folded in half.

Step Six:

Once you've got your basting pulled to the correct length, tie off the ends (I use slipknots) so it doesn't scoot. Note: In this photo you can see the finished neck hem from Step Four.

Step Seven:

Pin brim to crown, sandwiching the gathered crown edge between your ironed brim hem. You will use lots of pins to hold it in place. It should look something like this when you're done...

Step Eight:

Sew along the brim where it meets the crown. Not too close or you'll lose the brim piece underneath in places. I stitch from the top because that's the part you'll see when you're done.

Step Nine:

Add strings for tying. These can be fabric, ribbon, or whatever works for you. I handstitched some grosgrain ribbon on this one because it's faster than the machine work. It turned out like this:

Plus, I don't know if you can see it in that photo, but I added some elastic in the back of the neck so it wasn't so gappy, like this:

Well, that's it. How did I do? Did I miss anything or explain something poorly? It sure was easy to make, and now my other daughter is clamoring for her own, so I should go start on that one.

You have just saved the day! We went to an event recently where everybody was dressed in period clothing, and my daughter loved the bonnets. So she had to have one for Halloween- which is just around the corner! Now I don't have to search the fabric store for a pattern. Thank you!

Thank you for the tutorial! I suddenly got the idea that my 3-year-old HAS to have some bonnets for her summer wardrobe, and was so happy to find this on your blog. You make it sound so simple! I'll be making a few of these next week. :)

This Bonnet is AWESOME!!!I was making it and it sewed it by hand because I have no sewing machine. But I didn't think about it being for children...So its way too small for me...:/ But it looks pretty cute and today i got new fabric, i'll just make everything a bit bigger, it'll work! <3Thanks SO much for this Super cool tutorial :)

I am making a costume for a small little girl for a christmas carol. thank you so much this will help her to look more authentic. she gets to say "a goose, a goose" and has been practicing often. she is my grand niece. thank you so much again.

Catlady... to add a neck piece I would probably just add a gathered strip of fabric to the bottom before I put the elastic at the neck. As for size, my daughter in the picture is about 5, but I made one for my older daughter with the same pattern and it fit her fine. Both my girls continue to wear them still, and they are now 12 and 8. It seems to be a very "uni-sized" bonnet. Happy sewing!!

My daughter and I made one of these for her Halloween costume (Laura Ingalls Wilder). Even as a VERY basic sew-er (can't even use the word seamstress in connection with my name!), this project was very easy. I even made a mini one as a test to make sure I got all the steps before we embarked on the bigger one. Big and small came out GREAT! Excellent directions! Thanks for sharing them!

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I've been looking around the internet for free bonnet patterns, and this is one of the best I have foound so far! Almost all of the others have been how to change already existing straw hats into bonnets....not what I was looking for.

Hi, You could not have done a better job...better than "youtube" tutorials. I saw the following note on your blog and was curious. Did you know what this item is in the picture? I think it's pretty, but I'm not even sure what it is. Call me crazy! LOL Would like to make one if you have any more info on it. Thank's for everything. Betty

☆Mimy☆ said...Hi would you explain how to do this?http://i48.tinypic.com/jhtptt.jpgJune 28, 2010 1:03 PM

Thanks for your comment Bettyjean. As for Mimi's post...it looks to me like it's a backless bonnet. Kind of like a visor vs. a hat. I would try making the brim piece then adding ruffles to the back side where the head piece would be and maybe some embellishments on the top of the brim? Be sure to post your own tutorial when you figure it out!! :)

Just made this. Wondering if you'd consider linking to some instruction for basting. I hadn't done it in forever so found a youtube video that helped.Also, how did the elastic magically appear on the finished crown? ;) Got it all done and then saw the pic of the elastic and realized what I needed to make the shape right.

Thank you for a simple tutorial! It was perfect for our Little House birthday party. You can see the whole outfit at http://www.thissimplehome.com/2012/10/pioneer-dress-apron-and-sunbonnet.html if you wish. Thank you!

Howdy!! I'd love to send you a picture of my finished bonnet! I am so excited! Our daughter needed one for "Constitution Day" at her school this Wednesday. I went to my sewing room and in less than 2 hours, I whipped it up! And...Let me tell you, I'm NO seamstress! I'm so so pumped!! :) I was super nervous starting it since I didn't have an actual physical pattern. :)

I have been searching for something like this for a few days now, ever since my daughter informed me she needed a bonnet for her Pioneers unit at school. All the other sites I found made no sense, and I am a somewhat-experienced sewer. This worked, and worked beautifully. Thank you.

Hi, this was so adorable I just had to make one myself. Here is the blog post I made about it http://ticklishfingers.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-summer-bonnet.htmlThank you so much for the great instructions :)

Thank you for the tutorial! I found it on pinterest and it seemed like the easiest of all the ones I looked through to follow the instructions for a beginner sewer like me. I made one this afternoon for my 20 month old... just made it a bit smaller. She wore it to the festival and everyone had to compliment it! Nice, easy to follow instructions!

Thanks so much for the wonderful tutorial. I just made three of these in about 45 minutes, from cutting to finishing! I have about 5 more to make for our homeschool co-op class. I ended up serging instead of turning and hemming to attach the brim to the back. (i don't iron, ever) they came out absolutely wonderful! Thanks again!

*Note* This is sized for a very young girl. I made one according to the pattern given, and it is way too small for my 11-year-old. Fortunately, we've got enough fabric and we've got our process down now, so I'm going to do a repeat in a larger size tomorrow.

I'm going to add 2" to the length of the brim pattern, which will make the brim 4" longer overall (due to the fold) and I'm going to add at least 1" to the width of the brim pattern. I'm going add 2" in length to the cap part and at least another inch in width, which will give me 2" in width due to the fold. I'm thinking that will get us closer to an adult sized bonnet, which is probably what she needs.